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Neural Stem Cell Transplantation Promotes Functional Recovery from Traumatic Brain Injury via Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor-Mediated Neuroplasticity

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Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces cognitive impairments, motor and behavioral deficits. Previous evidences have suggested that neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation could facilitate functional recovery from brain insults, but their underlying mechanisms remains to be elucidated. Here, we established TBI model by an electromagnetic-controlled cortical impact device in the rats. Then, 5 μl NSCs (5.0 × 105/μl), derived from green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic mouse, was transplanted into the traumatic brain regions of rats at 24 h after injury. After differentiation of the NSCs was determined using immunohistochemistry, neurological severity scores (NSS) and rotarod test were conducted to detect the neurological behavior. Western blot and RT-PCR as well as ELASA were used to evaluate the expression of synaptophysin and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). In order to elucidate the role of BDNF on the neural recovery after NSC transplantation, BDNF knockdown in NSC was performed and transplanted into the rats with TBI, and potential mechanism for BDNF knockdown in the NSC was analyzed using microassay analysis. Meanwhile, BDNF antibody blockade was conducted to further confirm the effect of BDNF on neural activity. As a result, an increasing neurological function improvement was seen in NSC transplanted rats, which was associated with the upregulation of synaptophysin and BDNF expression. Moreover, transplantation of BDNF knockdown NSCs and BDNF antibody block reduced not only the level of synaptophysin but also exacerbated neurological function deficits. Microassay analysis showed that 14 genes such as Wnt and Gsk3-β were downregulated after BDNF knockdown. The present data therefore showed that BDNF-mediated neuroplasticity underlie the mechanism of NSC transplantation for the treatment of TBI in adult rats.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (CN) (No. 2014BAI01B10) and supported by the Program of Innovative Research Team in Science and Technology in University of Yunnan (IRTSTYN), together with program Innovative Research Team in Science and Technology in Yunnan Province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neurological Disease, and Department of Anesthesiology, Translational Neuroscience Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Liu-Lin Xiong, Yue Hu & Ting-Hua Wang

  2. Institute of Neuroscience, and Animal Zoology Department, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, 650500, China

    Piao Zhang & Ting-Hua Wang

  3. Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xian, 710032, China

    Zhuo Zhang, Li-Hong Li & Guo-Dong Gao

  4. Department of Human Physiology, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia

    Xin-Fu Zhou

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  1. Liu-Lin Xiong
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Correspondence to Ting-Hua Wang.

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Xiong, LL., Hu, Y., Zhang, P. et al. Neural Stem Cell Transplantation Promotes Functional Recovery from Traumatic Brain Injury via Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor-Mediated Neuroplasticity. Mol Neurobiol 55, 2696–2711 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-017-0551-1

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